What I've learned Lately

Weekly Wanderings 46: National Novel Writing Month 2018

It’s that time of year again… it’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s a 50,000 word writing challenge that takes place in November every year. “Fifty thousand words, you’re crazy!” you might say. But this is my tenth or eleventh year doing this ( I lost count years ago). If you want to know why I love NaNo so much, you can check out an article I wrote about that here. I wrote an article years ago about my prep routine that you can find here. My prep is largely the same, but a little different. I still warn my friends and family that I’m going to essentially disappear for a month. I still steal a little Halloween candy out of the bowl, just a little less than I did before.

I started out as a seat-of-my-pants kind of writer. I would just sit down and start typing away with little to no plan and see where it would take me. Since then I’ve definitely changed. Now October is full of plotting and planning and outlines preparing for November. Especially since I’ve been working on the same novel for essentially the last four years. And let’s face it, you’d have to be utterly insane to write epic fantasy with absolutely no planning.

I highly recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. I read it years ago and it’s really helped both in editing my own work as well as the writing process.

And can I just say, I am SO EXCITED for Starbucks holiday drinks! I’ve loved the gingerbread, caramel brulee, and chestnut praline lattes for years. Yes I know they’re mostly sugar with subpar coffee, but they are what gets me through this month with any semblance of sanity ok. And if you go into Starbucks tomorrow (November 2, 2018) and order a holiday drink you’ll get a free reusable red cup. AND if you bring in that cup after 2PM from November 3 through January 7 you’ll get a 50 cent discount. As someone who frequently brings in my own reusable cups to Starbucks, I’m really excited that there’s they’re offering better incentives even for a limited time.

I plan to not completely depart from life even though I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’m still (hopefully) going to keep posting here and doing things out and about in the world. Like I plan to go to the VOID in Downtown Disney sometime soon and try out their AR experience for the first time. And then there’s a friendsgiving to host later this month. It’s going to be a fun month.